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In addition, evidence seems to indicate that a recent hostile takeover attempt of SubredditDrama may have potentially originated from Positronic_Matrix himself based on timing of both the request and the creation date of the sockpuppet account used to make that request (it coincides with the creation times of his other sockpuppets).

Your most recent behavior that was exposed (and that you admitted to) was using sockpuppet accounts to "support" yourself -- and from the vote totals in that thread it was extremely clear that you also upvoted yourself using those sockpuppets.

So you can do it, but you ban someone (in this case, mistakenly) for doing the same in /r/apple? This is the very definition of hypocrisy.

Hey you should know that not all of us go around downvoting people. I never have and I assume others don't either. I can't see up or down votes(Goodbye karma) so I never noticed before seeing your comment.

it's like the SRS discussion forum, if you complain about SRS they say 'we have a forum for that...' but if you actually go there and talk about something sensibly they delete your post and ban you - kinda depressing how quickly mods begin adopting Machiavellian tactics of statehood.

It is precisely this kind of disparaging statement that brought about your ban on r/apple. Forgive me but I cannot give you the benefit of a respectful reply until you can give me the benefit of a respectful question.

I completely agree that there is some sort of mental illness going on there. Autism would be the kindest thing that might be wrong with him. The pitiful thing is that when the guy gets thrown off Reddit and/or his /r/Apple groups go into the toilet, he'll have nothing at all left in his life which is probably why he is fighting (and failing) so hard.

I know a child who's autistic. Please don't insult him by equating him with a reddit moderator.

Anyways, the contract could be a way to capture a list of expectations for users and for moderators, such as what content/actions could result in deletion/ban. Right now it has to be explained every time to folks. I think some subreddits capture this in a FAQ. Perhaps that's a better term for it.

hey, he's right about both things - downvote him and you're being as bad as SRS.

Sure he used a legalistic term 'contract' instead of simply calling it a FAQ or rules; he uses a lot of apple products so of course he's going to think in terms of massively binding contracts and litigious over-exaggeration! Give the guy a break.

Positronic_Matrix seems to be something of an obsessive when it comes to leaving no history of his own actions.

Yes, I have read through this entire thread, so have seen the "reduce witch hunt" reasoning for doing it, and that it also prevents people getting karma by posting an attack friendly comment in relevant areas.

I have also, however, seen Positronic state that he knows his karma is meaningless - so why are you deleting? It can't be witch-hunt prevention, as such, as a downvoted comment can still be read, a deleted one just looks like you lost an argument, and makes you look bad.

I believe it is against Reddit's rules to actively circumvent the deletion of posts, which is a shame. It's a simple script to collect your posts and archive them, rendering deletion useless.

Posting from puppet so that any bans are meaningless. Honestly too scared to post in this thread otherwise, as I do occasionally enjoy commenting in /r/apple, if not only to correct some of it's more zealous members.

I currently delete all posts related to moderation to protect myself against witch hunts. If you have the right to hide behind an alt to protect yourself from the allegedly evil mod, I have the right to delete my posts to protect myself from the allegedly evil mob.

It's trivial to prove my claim accurate because here I am in a brand-new witch-hunt thread that I discovered from personal attacks posted to my moderator comments! :)

Also, your post is fine. I'd never get upset for you asking directed questions. In fact I created /r/applemeta so we can all do it more often. I think we all need to get to know each other and work together as a team better. Hopefully, I'll have more time to work with the community once this time-wasting drama goes away.

I currently delete all posts related to moderation to protect myself against witch hunts.

You keep using the phrase "witch hunt" but it's not really applicable here. You have admitted to the crimes for which you have been accused. There is no question of guilt. That means it's not a witch hunt.

It's trivial to prove my claim accurate because here I am in a brand-new witch-hunt thread that I discovered from personal attacks posted to my moderator comments! :)

You are apparently terrible at vocabulary. Constructive criticism is not the same as "personal attacks".

Also, your post is fine. I'd never get upset for you asking directed questions. In fact I created /r/applemeta so we can all do it more often.

All of my directed questions to you, both on /r/apple and /r/applemeta, have been deleted. In addition, you claimed that they were either "personal attacks" or "harassment". If you are going to act dictatorial, at least be honest about it.

Hopefully, I'll have more time to work with the community once this time-wasting drama goes away.

Thank fucking god I use android, and have a distinct dislike for apple products. I've been paying attention to the sockpuppet king since the argument with honestbleeps, I'm like 99% sure he's legitimately mentally unbalanced. I'm not flaming, I'm not insulting, I'm just pointing out that he has a hell of a lot of traits that apply to the mentally unbalanced. Anybody else here remember Paul Christoforo? Aside from misspelling, they aren't that different.

For those of you who haven't been following this, it all started with a disagreement that Positronic_Matrix had with honestbleeps on r/Enhancement. From what I gathered, the disagreement started in private messages and then P-M decided to make it public with a [bug] posting. I don't know much about CSS but I'm pretty sure that P-M wanted to be able to remove the "Use subreddit style" checkbox via CSS. When told that it wasn't happening, he resorted to using sock puppets (as has been documented).

I messaged the /r/apple mods. Their response was less than stellar and P-M began threatening me at that point with blocking and banning. However, I was not the only one to notice and others on /r/apple began criticizing. Ostensibly because the discussion was off-topic, P-M created /r/applemeta and invited all there to continue the discussion. Unfortunately, despite some healthy and constructive criticism, P-M deemed most of it "witch hunting/derogatory/harassment" and promptly deleted comments and banned me and at least 3 other people who dared to criticize him. This was my criticism.

As I've said elsewhere in this thread, he doesn't really understand the meanings of words like "derogatory" and "harassment" but uses them to justify his dictatorial ways. I've continually asked for citations for the bad behaviour he claims to witness but he conveniently ignores that request.

haha what a huge shock that the Apple sub is moderated by a controlling, legalistic and possibly crazy psycho. Deceptive, manipulative and hugely egotistical? and it has the word apple on it?!?

how did all this anger start anyway? did he see someone else posting on reddit and decided he owned the idea of posting things on the internet [because someone had shown it to him ages ago] so they must be destroyed?

I apologize. In no way was I trolling — I was attempting to be kind. It's so easy to have miscommunications on the internet — even with the aid of smilies!

Know that I have absolutely no beef with you or this subreddit whatsoever. Indeed, I came here like everyone else — to participate. To show my respect for your authority and wishes, I will no longer post comments directly to you.

Let me know if there is any other behavior you would like me to correct either here or by PM.

I wanted to, but haven't got around to it. If anyone else wants to do it they may. Also because I just started in this subreddit.
My reason for asking would be lots of downvotes I saw in lgbt comments, that, I'm sure, are mostly by redditors that are actually regular posters/readers there.

/r/apple is a circlejerk, though. You can't discuss ways in which you disagree with the Apple UI philosophy without being downvoted for it. I use Linux on servers, do a lot of fixing Windows for work, but Mac is my desktop of choice and has been for several years. I love Macs, but I don't think they're without flaws. Mention those on /r/apple and you'll get downvoted for "he likes things that Steve doesn't like - Steve is perfect".

To be fair, if you want to have a discussion about how anything Apple sucks, /r/technology is right there for you. The only problem with that is that those folks seem to keep two-liter bottles of haterade right by their desks, so they can downvote even the mildest praise of anything Apple has ever done to hell.

I once pointed out that Apple is good at stealing other people's good ideas, something that is at best only mildly complimentary and is actually kind of insulting--and still got downvoted by the /r/technology haterade chuggers because I wasn't sufficiently-angrily damning of everything Apple had ever done.

Sometimes I prefer /r/Android over xda. XDA has way too much noise, I find it hard to find an answer sometimes. /r/Android users are pretty awesome. I feel I have an obligation to help someone new to android if I come across a question.

Maybe I don't pay enough attention. I rarely visit /r/apple but I was always happy with the content when i did. To me it seemed miles superior in that it wasn''t all self posts. But i guess i am wrong.

they keep the subreddit clear of shitty self posts and other low quality content.

Thanks (for the second half of that sentence at least). Moderators monitor the new and spam queue several times a day and reject about 75% of the submissions or so. There's a huge amount of spam with a smattering of other content that's occasionally redirected to other subreddits like r/applehelp.

Probably the one thing we edit that has the biggest positive impact is images. If it weren't for continuous intervention, /r/apple would turn into an imgur ghetto like /r/gaming. With that said, we do try to let in the occasional picture if it's good.

Greetings, all. I was sent a message about this thread and thought it would be a great opportunity for dialogue. To start, I just wanted to clarify a few things:

I was not involved in a "hostile takeover."

Honestly, I don't even know what a "hostile takeover" of a subreddit would look like, let alone how to implement it. Given the vast quantity of people that get shit on by this subreddit, I think it's likely that I'm not the only candidate for such an activity, yes? :)

I am not deleting posts for no reason or to "censor" people.

I actually delete posts that are defamatory or part of a campaign of sustained harassment. Indeed, I want to hear and address concerns and criticisms. Further, there's not a single ban or deletion that I won't publicly review or reverse if I am wrong. I go through this process continuously.

I am not on a power trip.

I only delete individuals who are abusive to other users or mods. It's really that simple. You have to be really break the rules to get banned in /r/apple. Further, everyone is given fair warning before banning, unless the transgression is severe (violating reddit strategic voting rules, obvious trolling or spam, etc.). Pretty standard stuff, really.

We are all a bunch of metaphorical neck beards in our moms' basements arguing about rules in a game no one is having fun playing. By addressing the claims of revisionism, am I not reinforcing the illusion than any of this stuff that's on reddit actually means anything?

Forgive me. I'm being nihilistic. It's just that I found out yesterday that my karma doesn't actually mean anything.

After a request to improve the /r/apple RES CSS support, I spent an entire weekend reworking it. It was hours upon hours of work. I brought the changes to the RES subreddit with detailed debug information and to my dismay my contributions were received poorly. Indeed, it degenerated into personal attacks in short order and I quickly became upset and retaliated.

Darn shame it was for everyone. I had some great ideas how a few RES hooks and some CSS work could transform a subreddit. Oh well. Ultimately it was my fault. :|

I do want to emphasize, that I admitted my error and publicly apologized to everyone in that same subreddit. The principals in the argument have all moved on but there are a few dedicated third parties keeping the /r/subredditdrama fire alight for whatever reason. :)

I don't have a problem with /r/apple and RES personally. They seem to play fine for me.

I do have a problem with the rankings in /r/apple and people getting awards. Not only is it extremely tacky, but it's starting to destroy the content on the subreddit.

I've been visting /r/apple since it's inception. I've been using Reddit since before there was even a commenting system. I have always enjoyed the content that I find in /r/apple, however... not for the past, oh, maybe 4-5 months has /r/apple been even a former shadow of what it once was. I don't recollect how long the rankings and awards have been around, but its turned this subreddit into more of a circlejerky repost haven than ever. The amount of new, interesting, intelligent content has decreased a couple orders of magnitude.

I strongly urge you to remove the rankings and awards in /r/apple. By giving people that kind of false and meaningless motivation, you're encouraging unoriginal content. If you let things go back to the way they were, it would surely improve.

Note that I don't feel the same way about /r/applehelp. The very nature of /r/applehelp actually makes such a ranking/award system beneficial to those seeking help... because you've got a big group of neckbeards (myself included for a brief moment in time) who really want to contribute by helping those with questions... because they enjoy to see their help getting recognized. But there is no need for this in /r/apple. The nature of /r/apple is to post new and interesting content that people want to discuss... proding people to strive for higher karma scores doesn't encourage interesting content, in encourages them to post reposts, and circlejerky content.

Please, as a long time Redditor, /r/apple and /r/applehelp community member, and supporter of your moderation in the past... I urge you to remove the rankings and awards in /r/apple.

Please, as a long time Redditor, /r/apple and /r/applehelp community member, and supporter of your moderation in the past... I urge you to remove the rankings and awards in /r/apple.

Right now we're only in week three of a one-month test of flair awards in a major subreddit. I built the code and know-how up in /r/applehelp and wanted to give it a go in r/apple. The reason for this is two fold:

I am trying to push the boundaries of reddit and I'm using /r/apple and /r/applehelp as places to try new ideas. No one has implemented a ranking/reward system in a major subreddit and I wanted to give it a try. It's just an experiment.

I feel that there is a shortage of good content in r/apple. Indeed, I often get frustrated that there are a ton of good stories in my Apple RSS feeds that never seem to get posted. I've seen the flair reward system have a huge impact in /r/applehelp and wanted to see if it could help r/apple.

With that said, here's what I do and don't like about the experiment so far:

Anecdotally, the submission of stories by those on the top-N list appear to be way up. It's good content too. I won't know for sure until I look in a week but I think the results will be surprising.

There are more dupe submissions, although I think I've done a good job of getting the obvious ones.

The sidebar looks simply awful. It's just too long and too cluttered.

I think the flair images are indeed tacky.

So, what I would ask from you is just a bit of patience. Let me see what the results are in a week. I'll post an analysis on r/applemeta. I'll then rework the sidebar to move a lot of that data to r/applemeta. From there, I'd like to have a community dialogue to discuss the awards.

Regarding the content, I can certainly prune some of those I-love-apple-support self posts out of the stream.

There's no sustained campaign of harassment that I've seen other than people hounding you a little bit for some really stupid stuff you've done, such as that thread where you pestered the creator of RES and used sockpuppets to try to plug yourself.

You banned someone earlier with absolutely no evidence he was using sockpuppet accounts to upvote his post. Additionally, did you know that there are a lot of effects in-place to counteract such things? For instance, users that consistently place the same votes on the same things will have their votes automatically corrected by the voting system. Not only that, but the score will still show as increased to those specific accounts. There's little need to ban for "sockpuppeting" as you did for another user in this thread because the automated system in place is already pretty effective.

Would you be willing to take screenshots of the /r/apple removed post queue to confirm your claim that your bans are specific and justified?

EDIT: Additionally, you constantly delete posts of your own that garner a negative karma score; I've seen you delete posts that are distinguished as a moderator and are statements to the community by you.

Would you be willing to take screenshots of the /r/apple removed post queue to confirm your claim that your bans are specific and justified?

I reversed those bans when I realized the comments and strategic votes were part of a /r/subredditdrama witch hunt. I was just missing that information. Technically though, isn't creating a thread to create harassing statements, up vote those harassing statements, and down vote the comments of targets against reddit rules? Something to think about, I guess. :)

Additionally, you constantly delete posts of your own that garner a negative karma score; I've seen you delete posts that are distinguished as a moderator and are statements to the community by you.

I delete all of my moderator comments after a short period, positive or negative. It's something that mods who are the subject of continuous witch hunts do to reduce points of attack (locations for people to leave defamatory or insulting comments). It was actually recommended to me by several seasoned mods who had endured the /r/subredditdrama treatment in the past.

I will also delete all these comments in a few days. Adjust your expectations, so you're not upset with me, please. :)

Technically though, isn't creating a thread to create harassing statements, up vote those harassing statements, and down vote the comments of targets against reddit rules? Something to think about, I guess. :)

This has been brought up a lot previously, not only with respect to r/subredditdrama, but r/worstof, r/srs, and various *watch subreddits. Unfortunately the admins haven't really said or done much in response to calls for their shutdown as violations of reddit rules.

For example, as soon as this self post here was created with its link to another thread, my comments in that thread started immediately collecting disparaging comments and down votes. I simply deleted all those comments, eliminating the easy targets. It's like the web, folks will hit the back button if the content they're looking for is more than one click away.

More that that though, witch hunts thrive on a cycle of defamation, harassment, and retribution.

Defamation incites the crowd to harass a target.

The target then seeks retribution.

This retribution is used to fuel further defamation.

Mods are great targets for this cycle because the retribution can be seen as unfair due to the power imbalance. I think this is the third or fourth time I've been around this loop.

Anyways, back to the topic — anything that can interrupt the cycle can help quell a witch hunt. For example:

Don't try to snipe this very actively moderated subreddit again. I do spend a lot of time ensuring that this subreddit is as neutral as possible. I delete more comments violating the subreddit rules (I enforce them fast and hard), so how dare you say we're a personal army when we're not.

Thank you for your hard work. I know very well how hard it is to moderate.

I did not state that this subreddit is a "personal army," because it is not. It is a vehicle for group witch hunts which on reddit manifests itself as defamation and harassment. Allow me to explain.

The self text at the top of this post is defamatory. It's defamatory in that it contains falsehoods that are meant to harm the reputation of an individual. Further, these lies motivate individuals to follow the included links to post snide comments, strategically up vote those comments, and strategically down vote the target. This is the harassment.

At first I didn't understand it but I now I realize it's a perfectly valid vehicle for folks to enjoy themselves on reddit. I mean, who am I to dictate in your own subreddit how to do things, right?

So really, I'm here to address the defamation, learn about your subreddit, and help folks who love drama enjoy their popcorn. Why not? :)

Thank you for your hard work. I know very well how hard it is to moderate.

I did not state that this subreddit is a "personal army," because it is not. It is a vehicle for group witch hunts which on reddit manifests itself as defamation and harassment. Allow me to explain.

The self text at the top of this post is defamatory. It's defamatory in that it contains falsehoods that are meant to harm the reputation of an individual. Further, these lies motivate individuals to follow the included links to post snide comments, strategically up vote those comments, and strategically down vote the target. This is the harassment.

At first I didn't understand it but I now I realize it's a perfectly valid vehicle for folks to enjoy themselves on reddit. I mean, who am I to dictate in your own subreddit how to do things, right?

So really, I'm here to address the defamation, learn about your subreddit, and help folks who love drama enjoy their popcorn. Why not? :)

"Defamation." You keep on using that word. Here and elsewhere. It's even what you banned me for. But I don't think you know what it means.

Defamation is saying false things about other people to hurt their reputation. Opinions are not facts and cannot be false. In the posts you warned/banned me for and the self post at the top of this thread, I see facts nobody can argue with and opinions you disagree with. This is not defamation.

Lots of people have a poor opinion of you. The only way to solve that problem is to stop being such a dick. If you don't stop, people are going to continue to say not nice things about you, especially if you ban people for selfish reasons.

So, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you do not understand why you were banned after a clear warning. Let me explain using your above text:

... people have a poor opinion of you ... stop being such a dick ... ban people for selfish reasons

There are both insults and defamatory statements in that text. One insult is calling me a "dick." One defamatory statement is stating that I "ban people for selfish reasons."

This quoted text, is sufficient to have your comment deleted in any subreddit I moderate. If it occurs more than once, or in your case many times throughout multiple subreddits, it will result in a ban. This is not a "selfish reason" rather it's just plain old moderation. If I did it to any of the moderators here, I'd be gone too. It's just not controversial.

So, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you do not understand why you were banned a clear warning. Let me explain using your above text:

... people have a poor opinion of you ... stop being such a dick ... ban people for selfish reasons

There are both insults and defamatory statements in that text. One insult is calling me a "dick." One defamatory statement is stating that I "ban people for selfish reasons."

This quoted text, is sufficient to have your comment deleted in any subreddit I moderate. If it occurs more than once, or in your case many times throughout multiple subreddits, it will result in a ban. This is not a "selfish reason" rather it's just plain old moderation. If I did it to any of the moderators here, I'd be gone too. It's just not controversial.

You did not give me a clear warning. You warned me for "defamation." That's something, as I explained above, I never did. When I was pointing out instances outrageous, sociopathic behavior that should disqualify yourself from being a moderator in any decent community, THAT is when you warned me, erroneously alleging I was defaming you. And even in this instant case, you state that "One defamatory statement is stating that I 'ban people for selfish reasons.'" Nope, that's not defamatory. Fact: You ban people. Fact: Some of these people, myself included, said unflattering things about you. Opinion: Given these facts, you (at least some of the time) ban people for selfish purposes. You disagree. Fine. But disagreement doesn't make it defamation. Now that I've thoroughly explained this, can you give up on the "defamation" bullshit? Pick words that actually apply. Speaking of which...

Hey, you finally caught me saying something potentially bannable under your "no insults" policy. "Dick" is an insult. It also, in my opinion, pretty much describes you and your reaction to all this bullshit. But there were no insults present in the posts you banned me for. So much for that.

And hey, you say this wasn't controversial? Hey, I'll go to my PM inbox and take some snippets used to describe you, my ban, the bans of others, and this entire sockpuppet fiasco. From other redditors subscribed to /r/apple. Most of whom you haven't banned. Yet. "Outrageous." "Bullshit." "This isn't right." "Ban crazy." "Petty tyrant." "Pompous, self-absorbed little douchenozzle." "His moderating and banning are getting out of hand." There is certainly some disagreement about your actions. People are just afraid of getting banned if they don't tread lightly.

You know, I've described one way for you to get all these mean things said about you to stop. Like I said above, if you stopped acting like a dick, that would go a long way. And personally, if you unbanned all the people you banned for "defamation" and stepped down as a moderator of /r/apple, my issues with you would stop. And people would stop saying mean things about you for your moderation. Think about it. Does the community really need you in particular to moderate? Or perhaps someone without all your baggage and with better judgement might be better for the community? At the very least, this drama would end.

This. Don't do this to users or mods or you will be banned. I don't "censor." I just have to remove abusive posts (and unfortunately sometimes the users who won't stop making them). It's the same exact rules as here. It's just the way it is.

I just want you gone as a moderator.

Here comes the surprise ending.

You're falsely accusing me of abusing power to silence people I don't like, while you yourself are actually abusing power (witch hunt) to silence people (moderators) that you don't like. Wouldn't it be a tragic comedy, a bitter irony, if you were unaware that you might have become the very thing you're trying to destroy? It's like neck-beard INCEPTION: you're in my mom's basement, no I'm in your mom's basement! ^_^

Anyways, back to reality. The reason I'm unlikely to depart as a moderator is that I'm really good at it. I've built up multiple communities from zero to tens of thousands over and over again, written thousands of lines of CSS, I moderate consistently and well, and I'm always willing to admit I'm wrong. Further, most people who take the time to pull back the curtain see that I'm a sensitive artist/programer type who just wants to make contributions to others.

Indeed, that's why I'm here now. I'm trying to show all of you some respect. I respect your feelings and your power. I want to spend some of my (very limited and precious) time here so that you'll see this and maybe appreciate my efforts.

This. Don't do this to users or mods or you will be banned. I don't "censor." I just have to remove abusive posts (and unfortunately sometimes the users who won't stop making them). It's the same exact rules as here. It's just the way it is.

I just want you gone as a moderator.

Here comes the surprise ending.

You're falsely accusing me of abusing power to silence people I don't like, while you yourself are actually abusing power (witch hunt) to silence people (moderators) that you don't like. Wouldn't it be a tragic comedy, a bitter irony, if you were unaware that you might have become the very thing you're trying to destroy? It's like neck-beard INCEPTION: you're in my mom's basement, no I'm in your mom's basement! _^
Anyways, back to reality. The reason I'm unlikely to depart as a moderator is that I'm really good at it. I've built up multiple communities from zero to tens of thousands over and over again, written thousands of lines of CSS, I moderate consistently and well, and I'm always willing to admit I'm wrong. Further, most people who take the time to pull back the curtain see that I'm a sensitive artist/programer type who just wants to make contributions to others.

Indeed, that's why I'm here now. I'm trying to show all of you some respect. I respect your feelings and your power. I want to spend some of my (very limited and precious) time here so that you'll see this and maybe appreciate my efforts.

I will continue to use phrases like "outrageous, sociopathic" behavior to describe your behavior when appropriate. Normal people don't create sockpuppets to win arguments on the internet. Normal people don't go on about their "beautiful sockpuppets" or similar such nonsense when they're caught being shady. Your reaction here is just dripping with it. You say you've feigned all this. But you replicated a sociopath pretty well.

And who could forget lines like this? When you took away someone's flair for saying not-nice things about you.

Yes. That's my flair, the blue apple, that I give out to people who do nice things specifically for me. How could you expect to have my flair, with these kinds of posts?

If you are not a sociopath, you're doing a damn good job impersonating one. If you aren't, why the hell are you pretending?

And you know what? All the bans I've seen from you are dick moves. And I see no problems in describing our outrageous conduct in such terms. You ban good posters because they have problems with your moderation and state it in ways you don't like. I've not seen people banned in /r/apple for "defamation" for anything other than saying not-nice things to you, while plenty of outright insults aimed at other people remain. You infamously banned NSView, a damned good poster, over bullshit political arguments outside the subreddit. That's a dick move. Your deletion of dissenting comments is a dick move. Closing threads that haven't gone your way is a dick move. Your banning of people from /r/applemeta so they can't even contest your actions to the community is a dick move. Stop being an oversensitive authoritarian dick and we can stop using those terms, ok?

The funny thing here is you somehow think that speaking like this makes me deserve a ban. That this is standard. Maybe it is, but my experience tells me otherwise. I've been taking part in internet communities, usenet, and BBSes for about twenty years. This is the first time I've ever been banned. Period. And I have said far worse things than I have ever said to you to other moderators and administrators.

You accuse me of hypocrisy for taking you to task for abusing your power as a moderator to silence people for criticizing you while I allegedly abuse my power to silence you. REALLY? I'm not asking you be banned from anywhere. I'm not asking that any of your posts or comments be deleted. I'm not asking that you voluntarily exile yourself. I'm not asking that you retract ANYTHING you've said. I am not trying to silence you and I would speak just as forcefully to anyone who tried to do so as I have done to you.

I am not on a witch hunt. You have done things that clearly make you unsuitable for a moderator. Because I want an amazing, bullshit-lite /r/apple community, I want you to step down. There are actual reasons. There is the aforementioned sociopathic behavior. At the very least, you've done nothing to diffuse the situation, choosing instead to pour gasoline on it... that shows poor judgement. You are overly sensitive to criticism. You banned people because they have conflict with you, harming the community. You've used sockpuppets to make arguments. You deny it, but the attempt to take over this subreddit has your fingerprints all over it. Someone like you is not responsible enough to wield the ban hammer.

This is not a witch hunt. I am not coordinating this with anyone. I speak for myself and for my own reasons. This is not because of any grudge I have against you. As I have stated before, I have no issues with you personally, just your moderation. This is me, speaking truth to power. Your actions have been unacceptable. As long as you refuse to admit that, I will state it to you as much as I can, as forcefully as I can.

You say you're "unlikely to depart as a moderator" because you're "really good at it." I disagree. You say you're good at CSS, but CSS doesn't make a community. In fact, I long ago disabled your CSS because it kept on making things malformed. You state that you "moderate consistently and well," but the only consistency I've seen is capricious bans from you. I've pointed out to you before that you lack the most important qualities needed to be a moderator. Quoting myself from elsewhere, "You have poor judgement. You have questionable ethics. You let your politics get in the way of your moderation. And you are petty. All in all, you are manifestly unprofessional." And I'm not alone in believing this. If you didn't delete posts and ban people for speaking like this, you would see this.

I'm glad you've taken the time to engage with me about this. My biggest disappointment, aside from the necessity of this discussion, is the fact that it had to take place in this subreddit because of your heavy-handed moderation in other venues.

Are you kidding me? Look at the user who created this self post. This is the internet, my man.

Not OP, but this is my only sockpuppet. I'm using it because I am quite literally afraid that posting in this thread will get me banned from /r/apple and it's linked subreddits.

Not using it to win arguments. Using it for anonymity. Very different from what you've been doing, from what I can see.

I count at least 23 personal insults.
I count at least 15 unsubstantiated derogatory claims, most of them qualifying as defamation.

Unprofessional, questionable ethics, being shady, are not 'personal insults'. They are observations which currently hold up under scrutiny. Deleting things which disagreed with you is unprofessional, which is how this post started in the first place. Questionable ethics falls under the same banner. Deleting your posts - and don't say you delete all of them, because I've been through your comment history, and you most certainly do not - is shady.

You are overly sensitive to criticism.

As for the unsubstantiated claims, deletion of dissenting comments, closing threads and abusing power; all three of these are, again, why this thread exists in the first place. They aren't unsubstantiated, people are posting screenshots and links all over the place.

On a more personal note - your CSS is deformed when used with RES on some machines, just so you are aware.

Are you kidding me? Look at the user who created this self post. This is the internet, my man.

This is a silly accusation. Obviously, a sock puppet account is required to make a post like this for fear of being unable to contribute in /r/apple because you'll ban my real account. That's a legitimate reason for creating a sock puppet.

I count at least 15 unsubstantiated derogatory claims, most of them qualifying as defamation.

My advice to you: no one will ever take you seriously when you communicate this way.

You yet again make another post, not really addressing anything I said, despite me going out of my way to take considerable time responding to nearly everything you said. Here we go again...

The person who created this thread probably isn't using the account to agree with themselves, given the account's single comment. And it's an obvious alt. His or her actions cannot be compared to your own, where you used deception in an attempt to win arguments. Here, it looks like the alt is probably being used to avoid a ban on their real account for bringing light to this nonsense.

And yes, you can count "personal insults" if you wish. However, they're characterizations of your actions and behavior and I contend those are fair game. It's all about how I don't think you should continue to moderate /r/apple, right? Of course you disagree—you haven't resigned yet and you've yet to admit wrongdoing!

As for "defamation," again, I explained this clearly. You should be thanking me for teaching you all about defamation, as it is a very important topic to know when running community websites. Nothing I said was defamation and you need to cut your claims to the contrary out.

Anyway, "personal insults" or not—"defamation" or not, I stand by what I've written.

You conclude by stating nobody will take me seriously if I speak this way. You know what? Right back at ya. The uniform reaction I've gotten from everyone I've vented to about this whole fiasco has been WTF, is this guy for real?! Maybe it's personal blindness being involved in this situation, but I've been far more reasonable than you in this whole situation. Putting on a crazy mask and deleting criticism because it uses not-nice words makes nobody feel like serious people are running the place. If you had kept everybody's posts in place and not gone ban-crazy, you might have actually won some support.

But hell, let's steer this back someplace more productive. You've given your reasons why you won't resign. You see nothing wrong with your actions. You think your moderation is good. You think we need your brilliant CSS. You're the whole package. I've explained why I disagree, before, and I won't rehash that. Let's assume, arguendo, that you're right. Do you think that anyone is capable of replacing you if you resigned? There are plenty of other great subreddits out there that are not run by you. Is there something about the topic of Apple where the community absolutely needs you in particular? If not, would you be open to replacing yourself if the community deemed it best? Because remember, moderators serve the community, not the other way around.

In addition, evidence seems to indicate that a recent hostile takeover attempt of SubredditDrama may have potentially originated from Positronic_Matrix himself based on timing of both the request and the creation date of the sockpuppet account used to make that request (it coincides with the creation times of his other sockpuppets).

True, and only says "evidence seems to indicate" - doesn't make a direct conclusion.

Given this diatribe about this subreddit from Positronic_Matrix , it seems even clearer that he's still on a power trip / rampage.

I suppose you can call this "opinion", but it's hardly "falsehood"

He has now created /r/applemeta as a place to discuss /r/apple -- he has already deleted some posts in the only thread currently present there

Anyone who looks at the thread can see you've deleted things there. True also.

The self text at the top of this post is defamatory. It's defamatory in that it contains falsehoods that are meant to harm the reputation of an individual. Further, these lies motivate individuals to follow the included links to post snide comments, strategically up vote those comments, and strategically down vote the target. This is the harassment.

Care to back up your assertion of falsehoods? Which part of the text is lying? Yeah, I thought so.

Oh my, yes. I told you when I banned you that this ban applied to all subreddits where you engaged in the negative behavior after the warning.

I value your opinion but in order to be heard you have to give it without personal attacks and unsubstantiated accusations. Indeed, the subreddit in question has a thread with comments from folks who were able to do that. I think we're actually having a meaningful conversation. :)

I value your opinion but in order to be heard you have to give it without personal attacks and unsubstantiated accusations. Indeed, the subreddit in question has a thread with comments from folks who were able to do that. I think we're actually having a meaningful conversation. :)

As I have asked many times, I would like to see the "personal attacks and unsubstantiated accusations" you speak of. I'm pretty sure they don't exist.